Zanna, Princess Warrior!!!'s Fundraising Page

Thank you for visiting my Giving Page to support cancer research and care at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund.

Dana-Farber provides expert, compassionate care to children and adults and is home to groundbreaking cancer discoveries. Since its founding in 1948, the Jimmy Fund has raised millions of dollars through thousands of community efforts to advance Dana-Farber’s mission.

Zanna's Story (told by her mama Jen)

Zanna turned 3 in January of 2022. Shortly after, she started getting sick frequently. She had an infection on her bum, a stomach bug, a double ear infection. She also wasn't walking, had consistent pain in one of her legs, was pale, had frequent fevers, had a lingering cough/hoarse throat and swollen lymphnodes. We were taking her to her pediatrician once or twice a week for 5 weeks... they tested her for covid/ flu 10 times at least and were convinced that her ailments could be attributed to common infections (like an ear infection).

On 2/22/22, we were once again at the doctors to have her checked out. Even after 2 different antibiotics, she still wasn't herself and we knew this was not normal. I cried and basically begged her pediatrician to run blood tests; she agreed and ran a battery of tests on Zanna and did a chest x-ray. After several hours at the pediatricians office, her pediatrician told us we needed to immediately go to the ER at Children's Hospital and that Zanna would need to be admitted for at least a week. Her dada Matt and I quickly packed a bag, asked my mom to come watch her 16- month old little sister Cora, and headed to Children's.

We learned Zanna's hemoglobin count was 2.9....a typical 3 year old should be between 10-12 and anything under 7.5 requires a blood transfusion. She also had pneumonia (nagging cough.....). She was given a blood transfusion right away and antiobiotics. That night was the first time we heard that she had leukemia. That was also the first night she actually started to look better and the rosieness came back to her cheeks.

After some additional testing, a bone marrow biopsy and a Lumbar Puncture (LP; testing of the spinal fluid and administration of chemo), they confirmed she had B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (B ALL): "The disease starts in your child's bone marrow, which is the spongy center of bones where new blood cells grow. The leukemia cells grow very fast and crowd the bone marrow, so the bone marrow has trouble making enough normal cells."

Zanna was in the hospital for 29 days, I stayed with her and Matt and Cora visited frequently and we had lots of video calls! We unenrolled her from school and Matt and I took 4-month LOAs from work. After the initial stay, she had another unplanned 5 day hospital stay due to complications from surgery (Matt stayed for that one!)

She is now in outpatient treatment. The treatment course is 2 years and she is set to be done and cleared of cancer in April 2024 🙌🏾 She has gone into the Jimmy Fund in Boston between 1 and 4 times per week since April 2022. She is now going every 3 weeks and has Visiting Nurses, Amy and Katie, come to our house the other 2 weeks to take blood for labs, check vitals and administer chemo. She has had several overnight hospital stays, blood/platelet transfusions, LPs and bone marrow biopsies, as well as placement/removal of her picc line and port (picc/port are how they administer her IV meds and give her transfusions).

Her treatments have included oral/IV chemo, painful intramuscular shots in her thighs, and many medications to combat the side effects of those drugs. Side effects have included inability to walk, nausea, vomiting, difficulty sleeping, mouth sores, weight gain, weight loss, wild mood swings, pain and exhaustion (I'm sure I'm missing some!)  She's responding so well to treatment, is an incredible patient, and is SUCH an amazing girl.

For the past 2 years, we haven't shared her story widely for many reasons: it was overwhelming for all of us when we were in the thick of it and having a lot of incoming would have been even more overwhelming; we were conscious of her privacy and did not want to overexpose her; we wanted to give her as much normalcy as possible; and we preferred to go through this as a family with a handful of extended family, friends and coworkers around us (we are forever grateful to all of you ❤).

 
Now, we want to give back to the organization that has saved our Zanna. We owe EVERYTHING to Dana Farber and the Jimmy Fund and want to make sure we are helping them to raise money to continue research and to help end pediatric cancer. Please consider donating whatever you can to support this life-saving cause, on behalf of Zanna and the many other children we have met throughout her treatment. I cry as a write this thinking of what she has gone through but am SO thankful she is here, healthy and thriving!!!

Please don't leave this page without giving!! Anything will help us to achieve our goal of $15,000!!!